This really cool, future-retro looking contraption was the first arcade-based video game ever made/released circa 1971. Created by Syzygy Engineering, Computer Space was Atari’s initial entry (before they were called Atari) via Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. I read out this in my recently acquired coffee-table book I’ll be blathering on about eventually.
It’s based upon the university game Spacewar! from the Sixties which most video gamers know about. The objectives are a bit different yet Computer Space is really a clone. Although it’s the first commercial game made, it wasn’t a big hit like Pong but it did pave the way for making dedicated arcade machines dedicated to one game instead of trying to make a cheap computer.
The Pinball Hall of Fame is incredibly lucky to get one mostly intact. Only 1300-1500 were ever manufactured in the early Seventies.
I asked one of the volunteers about theirs. They said they justify to get it as operational as possible but they’ll be falling back on emulation since the CRT is kaput; CRT-based games are also hitting a dead end as this technology is running out of spare parts.
I hope to play it upon my next visit.